Tearful goodbyes as St. Johns shutters elementary school

The final day of school at East Olive Elementary School in St. Johns. The rural elementary school closes their doors today due to low enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

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"My whole family went here, and my kids went here, she was my third-grade teacher," a tearful Kari Pickell said after hugging third-grade teacher Brenda Munger, right, Friday, the final day of school at East Olive Elementary School. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.(Photo: MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal)Buy Photo

Friday was the last day before summer break and Munger's last as a teacher. It was also East Olive's final day as a school, after its student population shrank to 82 students this year, down from 156 a decade ago.

East Olive's closure prompted Munger to retire, though she plans on staying involved in the district.

“It’s been a great place to be,” Munger said of East Olive. “It’ll be different not coming back, but I’m volunteering one day a week at Eureka (Elementary) in the fall. I need to be where the kids are going to be.”

Using heart-shaped cards, students earlier this week adorned the front section of the school with reasons why they loved East Olive.

“I love East Olive because Mrs. Munger is like my second mom,” Simonne Hartsuff, a third-grader, wrote on her card, according to her mom, Caron Hartsuff.

Both Caron and her husband Daniel had Munger as a teacher. So did four of her children.

“We’re all better for it,” Caron Hartsuff said.

Munger, 64, said she’s had numerous families where she taught the parents and their children during her time at East Olive. She admitted not knowing what she felt Friday, amid the excitement of summer break and the end of East Olive and her role as a teacher there.

"It'll probably hit me in the fall when I would normally come and decorate my classroom," Munger said.

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As is the tradition at East Olive Elementary School in St. Johns, buses circled the drive in front of the school honking the horn as kids chant 'goodbye,' Friday afternoon on the final day of school. It is the final goodbye and the end of a tradition as the school will be permanently closing it doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

Folks head to East Olive Elementary School Friday to pick up their kids on the final day of school. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

"My whole family went here, and my kids went here, she was my third-grade teacher," a tearful Kari Pickell said after hugging third-grade teacher Brenda Munger, right, Friday, the final day of school at East Olive Elementary School. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

'Miss Foreback: You're so overrated - everyone said you were so fun -big fat hairy deal. Signed, Aivree,' Aivree Baldwin's card said as her fourth-grade teacher Vicki Foreback read it aloud in class, Friday, the final day of class at East Olive Elementary School in St. Johns. "I don't think you wrote that," Foreback joked. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

There was no shortage of tearful embraces Friday afternoon at East Olive Elementary School in St. Johns, as teachers, students, and parents hug after the final day of school. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

St. Johns parents Kari Pickell, left, and Caron Hartsuff hugged Friday, the final day of school at East Olive Elementary School. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

Third-grade teacher Brenda Munger keeps her students at bay Friday as they eagerly await the final bell on the last and final day of school at East Olive Elementary School in St. Johns. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years. Munger taught at the school for 35 years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

Parents take photos of their kids Friday, which was the final day of school at East Olive Elementary in St. Johns. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.
MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal

Emotions were high Friday at East Olive Elementary School, especially for teachers Vicki Foreback and William Platt. The school is closing for good due to enrollment declines.
Matthew Dae Smith/ Lansing State Journal

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A decade of declining enrollment district-wide prompted East Olive's closure, according to Superintendent Dedrick Martin.

“East Olive has been a building that’s done well,” Martin said. “It has great teachers, students and families.”

The loss of 379 students in the past decade, leaving fewer than 3,000 students this year, made keeping East Olive open untenable. A 1968 news article hung up inside the school Friday boasted of 230 students when East Olive originally opened.

With East Olive's closure, St. Johns now has two large elementary schools in the city and two rural elementary schools. East Olive is the second rural elementary school to be closed in recent years, the first being East Essex Elementary School in 2010. The district has one middle school and one high school.

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There was no shortage of tearful embraces Friday afternoon at East Olive Elementary School in St. Johns, as teachers, students, and parents hug after the final day of school. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.(Photo: MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal)

Anne Marie Potter, principal at East Olive, said she was glad students and staff got one more year at the school. Under a prior plan, East Olive was slated to close last year.

Students sat in neatly formed lines by grade level inside the school’s gymnasium for a final assembly. Water bottles, bumper stickers notepads and other items with the East Olive name were arranged for students to commemorate their time at the school.

Artesia Vannote was among a handful of parents gathered inside the school more than an hour before dismissal. Her daughter Alexis was emotional about the closing of East Olive, even though she is slated to move on to middle school in the fall.

“It’s a family here,” Vannote said. “The staff have done such a good job keeping students positive and excited for the next school year.

Students were able to tour their new schools come fall for about 45 minutes last week as a means of getting them adjusted.

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Parents take photos of their kids Friday, which was the final day of school at East Olive Elementary in St. Johns. The school will be permanently closing its doors due to declining enrollment the past few years.(Photo: MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal)

Vicki Foreback, who worked at East Olive for more than two decades, had a message for students at the assembly. Relying on students' love of the Detroit Tigers, she talked about fan-favorite Miguel Cabrera. Foreback told students he wasn’t always a Tiger, having been traded from the Florida Marlins in 2007. Like the students, Cabrera didn’t have a choice, Foreback told them.

“But today, he loves Detroit,” Foreback exclaimed.

And like Cabrera, Foreback told students they would come to love their new schools, though maybe not as much as East Olive.

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.

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A look inside East Olive Elementary School before it closes for good Friday, June 16, 2017. The school is closing after a decade of declining student enrollment.
RJ Wolcott, Lansing State Journal